Should school principals, teachers and administrators carry firearms to help increase school security?

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It's a question being raised following the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Iowa State University Assistant Director of Education has 32 years of experience as a high school principal in Iowa and Minnesota.

"Personally, I would have felt very, very uncomfortable," said Achter. "I don’t believe that you can create a really welcoming feeling, like it’s a family atmosphere, with a principal carrying a gun."

Achter said lockdown drills and other security measures became routine in schools across the country after the Columbine school shooting in 1999. Schools have added security guards, security cameras and locked exterior doors.

Achter said there is no perfect system when it comes to school security.

"It's just literally impossible, unless it's a prison, to keep people out and you certainly don’t want that," Achter said. "I think we have to work with a lot of ills that we have in society, along with schools, but I want the public to know that school officials and school districts and school teachers take security very seriously."

Achter said another issue to consider is how to keep firearms secure at all times inside a school building. He said he does not believe armed administrators is the answer.

"Students have to feel comfortable in school and I think you work with them individually, like schools do, to help them. But I would have a hard time sitting as the principal talking to a class knowing that I had a firearm on me," Achter said.

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